Rufo Quintavalle

from Shelf

10.

All the hurt
We
Inflict
Knowingly, the
Failure

To understand,
Mean-hearted talk

To those
In a fragile
Youthful place

It will
Haunt us like a nimbus
On a hospital bed
Sheet.

They live
In peace
That look
Around them
And see that
All things
Are themselves
And of the mass,
Hunger and lunch
Is slave and master.

11.

The nine
Twenty
Train gets in at five

Some refreshments in the park
Should weather allow

Walt,
An old grubber

Will show you
Your room

Do remember
To tip him

The dollar
Looks less

And less
Itself these days

They say the man must swim
That used to catch
The ferry.

12.

This part
Is thin

Banal;
Everyone

Fills
The blanks
Or else
Turns the page.

13.

The gray-bearded man
Told me
He’d
Hired
This

Image
Impresario:

I was planning
To sing
A song

Of generations
I needed to be

More
Than I seemed

I followed his
Advice
And now all
Acquiesce
And come
After me.

14.

The lucent
Young men
That pledge
Fidelity

To a new beginning
Turn their faces
To my minstrelsong
In this, the here and now

They press
To see my poem

Its
Orifices
Of ingress,
Its heady intent

While
My flesh rots
And turns to moisture
Nightly rains will
Scatter.

Copyright © Rufo Quintavalle, 2009